In the Den of Lions
by Padfoot's Bone
Summary: Sirius's family is not happy when he's sorted into Gryffindor, and someone decides to take matters into their own hands-with disastrous results. Please RR!
1. Facing the Family

Disclaimer-Everyone and everything in my story belongs to J.K. Rowling and her various publishers and what not, I'm making no money from this, so no suing, please! (I'm broke).

Thanks for reading my humble first HP fanfic, and please review!

  


In the Den of Lions, by Padfoot's Bone

Chapter One: Facing the Family

  


Eleven-year-old James Potter sat with his three good friends at breakfast, two weeks before Christmas break. James couldn't wait, he was practically bursting with excitement to tell his parents all about the many adventures he had had so far with his friends. They would be so pleased to hear that he was fitting in so well, but they really shouldn't have expected anything less. His mother really did worry too much sometimes.

Bringing himself out of his reverie, James looked around at his friends. Sitting to his left on the same side of the table, Peter Pettigrew was busy devouring a plate piled high with eggs and bacon while he stared hard at some of his crinkled Transfiguration notes. Obviously his nervousness about the test today had not diminished his appetite in the slightest. 

Across the table from Peter sat Remus Lupin, looking pale and tired, but eating heartily nonetheless. He had just returned late last night from visiting his mum over the weekend, who had been very ill. He had assured them that his mum was going to make a full recovery, which was good, but James rather thought that Remus looked like he had been sick too. The boy had told them that he hadn't gotten all that much sleep over the weekend from worrying, but he assured them all that he was fine, however, so no worries there. 

James turned his attention to the boy sitting directly across from him, Sirius Black, who was busy inhaling a bowl of cereal. Sirius was shaping up to be his best friend out of the three of them, as they had the most in common, including a love of mischief-making. The fact that they had so much alike had come as a surprise to James, as had the fact that Sirius was in Gryffindor to begin with, since he was a Black, after all. At the start of the term, the school had buzzed for over a week about the fact that another Black had not been sorted into Slytherin, where they usually went. Most of the buzzing had, in fact, come from Narcissa and Bellatrix Black, Sirius's outspoken, and very annoying, Slytherin cousins. They were both highly ashamed to be associated with another blood traitor, just like their own sister Andromeda (a Ravenclaw), and so on and so forth. Every time Sirius heard them speak about him like that, he would go very still, his hands would clench into fists, and his face would burn, whether with shame or anger, James couldn't tell. Every time he had tried to talk about it, his friend would change the subject, so James had decided not to press the issue. 

James already knew that the Blacks were one of the oldest wizarding families in Great Britain, and took a great deal of pride in their 'pure' heritage. In fact, any member of the family who failed to uphold the pure-blood tradition was immediately disowned. Part of that family pride was that Blacks had been sorted into Slytherin, the House of pure-bloods, for centuries, and anyone not sorted into said House was viewed with dismay and suspicion, since he or she clearly valued other things to be above the purity of blood, a grievous offense. Unfortunately, the decent family members, those not sorted in Slytherin, apparently came along only about once every two hundred years or so. James had heard all of this from his father before he had started at Hogwarts, a lecture that had ended with the admonition, "You beware of those Blacks, all right? Rotten, the lot of them." James wondered what his father would say when he told him that he was now friends with a Black. True, Sirius was one of those rare decent ones, but James didn't think he'd mention that just yet, it would be much too fun to see his father's reaction.

James's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the mail. His family's owl, Hermina, landed in front of him with his usual weekly letter from home. A large barn owl also landed nearby, bearing his Daily Prophet subscription. As James was paying the bird, he noticed that a very handsome eagle owl had landed in front of Sirius, who was staring at the letter tied to its leg with a glum expression. James recognized the bird as the one that had come on the third day of the term with a Howler for Sirius from his mum. She had shouted about how he had disgraced the family name by being sorted into Gryffindor, a House that associated itself with mudbloods, and that she had always suspected he was abnormal and now this proved it, and blah blah blah. Sirius had turned flaming red and slid under the table at the start of his mum's ranting, which had lasted for over ten minutes. He had refused to come back out until the Great Hall was almost empty and they were about to be late for class, and had been sullen and moody for the rest of the day.

Sirius reluctantly took the letter off of the owl's leg, and James saw with relief that it was not a Howler this time. Sirius did not seem to share in his relief, however, and he made a face as he tore the letter open. "Another letter from your mum?" James inquired, though the first one hadn't technically been a letter.

"No," Sirius answered sullenly as he started to read through the letter, "it's from my father. He's _commanding _me to come home for Christmas break." 

"Commanding?" Remus echoed incredulously.

Sirius nodded, still looking very morose, and also a little angry. James noticed that his hands were shaking slightly as he flipped to the second page of his letter. "I was hoping I'd get to stay at Hogwarts this year so I could actually enjoy Christmas for once!" Sirius declared bitterly, a scowl on his face. "But now I see they're determined to keep on making me suffer for the 'horrible stain I have inflicted on our most noble and ancient family name!'" he said, and James recognized it as a quote from Sirius's mother's Howler. With a sudden movement, Sirius wadded the letter in his fist and slammed it down on the table, rattling nearby dishes.

James concernedly watched his friend seethe for a moment, then said, somewhat hesitantly, since Sirius looked ready to explode, "Why don't you just write your dad back and tell him you'd rather stay here for Christmas, or come home with one of us? I'm sure he'll understand if-"

Sirius interrupted with a laugh that sounded a lot like a dog's bark. "And have my father throw a fit, come to Hogwarts, drag me home by my ears, and flail me to within an inch of my life? No, thank you." With that he stood up, grabbed his book bag and left the table, the letter still clutched in his hand.

James grabbed his own bag and followed his friend, who was stalking out of the Great Hall like a black-haired thundercloud. James was more than a little concerned about Sirius now, he rarely ever got in a bad mood like this. In fact, the only times he did were when he had to deal with his family, James recalled darkly. He caught up to his friend in the entrance hall and fell into step beside him. "He wouldn't really flail you to within an inch of his life, would he?" James asked, somewhat nervously, since he wasn't sure if he should put _anything _past the Black family.

Sirius sighed somewhat exasperatedly. "No, I suppose I was exaggerating," he conceded, "but they'll make my Christmas ten times more unpleasant than if I come home willingly, you better believe that." He wagged his finger at James as he continued. "My father's always said, 'you've got to face your problems like a man, and maybe one day you'll earn my respect, but somehow I doubt it.'" Sirius's hand dropped back to his side, and he shook his head. "Not that I care," he added softly, in a tone that made James suspect that his friend cared more than he was willing to admit.

However, they had arrived at their first class of the day by then, History of Magic, so James decided not to pursue the subject any further. He didn't want to upset Sirius any more than he already was.

The next two weeks passed fairly uneventfully. Though Sirius had gotten over his bad mood created by that letter from home by the end of that day, he became increasingly sullen again the closer to the Holidays it got. He would grumble discontentedly every time he heard a ghost singing a Christmas carol, or whenever he would see some new decoration go up somewhere in the castle, saying each time that he did not want to be reminded that Christmas was getting closer. Luckily his sullen mood did not inhibit his mischief-making ability, and they were able to pull off three pretty clever pranks, if James said so himself, by the end of the second week. All perpetrated against Slytherins, of course, at least one of which had included Severus Snape, their greasy-haired fellow first year. James had executed a brilliant bit of charm work on a bottle of shampoo, which would result in the user's hair turning bright pink for the day. Sirius had been the one to sneak it into the Slytherin bathrooms and somehow ensure that Snape used it, which he had managed without a hitch. However, James had had to spend the night in the hospital wing as a result of all the hexes Snape had thrown at him once he realized what had happened and who had done it, but the image of Snape doing so with bright pink hair had made it all worth it.

The first day of the Christmas break arrived at last, or in Sirius's case, all too soon, James reflected as he watched his scowling friend climb on board the Hogwarts Express. Peter and Remus were also going home for the Holidays, so the four of them found a compartment to themselves. Sirius didn't talk much during the journey, but even if he didn't do it whole-heartedly, he still joined in their games and laughed at James's jokes.

As the train pulled into the London station several hours later, James spotted his parents waiting for him on Platform 9¾ and waved to them excitedly, who waved enthusiastically back. As the four boys were retrieving their luggage from the racks above their seats, the door to their compartment burst open, and three girls, two with black hair and one with blonde, charged into their compartment. James recognized the blonde as Sirius's cousin Narcissa, and one of the black-haired girls as his cousin Bellatrix, but the third was unfamiliar, though he could only assume that it was his Ravenclaw cousin Andromeda, the other 'disgrace' to the Black family name.

"_Hurry _up Sirius," Bellatrix said in a domineering voice, "our parents are waiting." Without ceremony, she grabbed Sirius's trunk, slung it over her shoulder, sneered at James, Remus, and Peter, and left the compartment with an arrogant huff. Narcissa and Andromeda herded Sirius out the door after her, and he barely had a chance to look over his shoulder and wave a sullen goodbye to his three friends before they too were out the door.

James exchanged glances with his two other friends, and all three of them shook their heads in sympathy at Sirius's plight. _At least he'll only have to put up with them for two weeks_, James thought, unwilling at the moment to consider what it would be like come the end of the school year in June, when Sirius would be faced with two whole months with his family. One thing at a time.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sirius Black followed his three cousins onto Platform 9¾, annoyed that he didn't get to say a proper goodbye to his friends. However, he knew better than to keep his parents waiting, so he followed them without complaint. For that matter, he knew better than to complain to his cousins, since they would only laugh scornfully and find new ways to make life difficult for him. Bellatrix and her sisters were the children of Sirius's father's younger brother, and the two families had spent every Holiday together for as long as Sirius could remember. Since they both lived in London, their families spent a great deal of time visiting each other anyway. Sirius wished they wouldn't, it really did make life unbearable. The three and a half months he had just spent at Hogwarts had been the best time of his life so far, and with his three new-found friends, he could only expect that things would just keep getting better. If he made it through all the Holidays and summer vacations in between, that was.

His parents and Regulus were waiting with his aunt and uncle near the entrance to the Muggle side of the station. Knowing there was no use in delaying the inevitable, Sirius walked up to his parents and said, as respectfully as he could, "Hello, Father. Hello, Mother."

They were both looking down their noses at him, not bothering to hide their disdain for their now wayward son. His mother let out a hiss, then turned around and followed the other Blacks, who were starting to leave the Platform now. His father's gaze lingered for a moment longer, making Sirius feel vastly uncomfortable, like he was being regarded as something nasty that his father had just found on the bottom of his shoe. But finally he turned around as well, and silently followed the other, without another backward glance.

Sirius was left facing Regulus, who was looking at him uncertainly. "Hello, Regulus," he said with an attempt at a smile that he did not really feel. His parents' greeting had been colder than he had expected. He felt that he could have handled them yelling and screaming at him much better than the cold silence that they had chosen. At least it would have shown that they still cared, in some small way anyway. And Regulus proved to be no different. After a moment, he huffed haughtily and walked off, leaving Sirius to follow dejectedly behind.

Sirius was ignored all the way home, making him feel increasingly unwanted. However, once they arrived at the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, it soon became apparent that his family did still care in some way, and Sirius wasn't at all sure any more if it was what he wanted.

He had barely drug his trunk into his bedroom when he heard his mother shouting shrilly from the bottom of the stairs, "Sirius, get in here! Your father and I want a word with you, now!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, but knowing better than to keep his parents waiting, he headed down to the family's sitting room. To his surprise, he found that everyone was in the room, not just his parents. _So this is to be a public humiliation_, Sirius thought bitterly. Bellatrix was sneering at him from a corner table where she was playing chess with Narcissa, but Andromeda appeared vaguely sympathetic as she looked up from the book she was reading in one of the high backed chairs by the window. Regulus was sitting by his uncle Rigel and looking slightly apprehensive, while his aunt and uncle looked at him without expression. It was his mother and father who concerned Sirius most, though, they were both on their feet and looking at him with suspicion and not a little disappointment. Sirius's father and mother were both quite old already, he thought they looked like they should be grandparents by now, instead of their eldest child only being eleven. His mother, he secretly thought, looked like a wrinkly old hag, but his father looked quite a bit younger, though still pretty old. He had black hair liberally infused with gray, but his shoulders were still broad and his frame was burly. His brother Rigel was over twenty years younger than him, but Rigel's children were older, Andromeda was a sixth year at Hogwarts now. However, it was Rigel who was the exception and not Sirius's father, since Blacks tended to have a habit of marrying late for some reason that Sirius didn't care about.

"Sit," his father commanded, pointing to a high-backed chair close to the door. Sirius sat. Then his father began to pace up and down the room in front of him, while his mother just stood there and looked at him, every once in a while shaking her head. Sirius wished they would just get on with it, every was staring at him and making him feel like some animal in a cage at the zoo. He knew that if he interrupted his father's little display by saying anything, though, he would only get angry and make things worse. So he kept his mouth shut and started fiddling with a loose thread on his robe.

Finally, after pacing for a few more minutes, his father turned to him and spoke. "So," he began, "this-" he indicated Sirius's Gryffindor school robes with a disdainful wave of his hand, "this is the path you have chosen."

Not knowing what to say to that, Sirius only nodded. It proved, however, to be the wrong thing to do, as his mother made some sort of hissing sound, and his father puffed himself up and stared hard at his son. "So, you agree with that wretched Sorting Hat, do you?" his father demanded. Before Sirius could say anything in his defense, however, his father continued, "You, and her-" he pointed accusingly at Andromeda, who hid her face behind her book, "you two are walking on very thin ice, do you understand me? This family has worked very hard to keep it's blood pure and untainted, unsullied by lesser magic, and those without any magic at all!" He turned to glare at Andromeda as he said this, who had come under even greater suspicion since it became known that she was taking Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. Her forehead had gone red behind her book.

"But you!" Sirius's father rounded back on him. "You have a greater responsibility than her, since you will always carry the name of Black. It has chanced to fall on yourself and your brother to carry on the family line, and I intend to see to it that you do so in a manner that pleases us. By associating yourself with those, those _Gryffindors_-" he said the name like it was a curse word as he indicated Sirius's robes again with a wave of disgust, "you have seriously jeopardized your chances of maintaining the pure-bloodedness of our family name!" Sirius sighed to himself, he had already heard a lot of this from his mother's Howler earlier that year. He had hoped they would have come up with new lecture material by now, but obviously not.

And his father was far from finished. He ranted on for several more minutes, all about how, now that Sirius was associating with Gryffindors on a regular basis, he would become more and more corrupted, and how he had seriously hampered his chances to become friends with the Slytherins, and how none of the Slytherin girls would want to marry him now, and there were too few pure blooded families in the other Houses, and they were all corrupt anyway... The lecture went on and on, and Sirius's attention started to drift, though he managed to keep his eyes from glazing over in boredom. He was hungry and tired, and wanted nothing more than for this night to be over with.

Sirius was distracted from listening to his stomach rumble when his father pointed at Regulus. "It may very well fall to your younger brother to be our salvation now, since you have placed yourself in that, that..._den of lions_, and I don't see how you can get back out again unscathed, or that you would even want to!" Sirius was momentarily taken aback by his father's choice of words. The old man had never waxed metaphorical before. But then his father continued, "Salazar Slytherin have mercy on us if Regulus fails to enter his noble House, our last hope!" He had raised his hands to the ceiling as he said this, like he was saying a prayer or something, and his wife nodded enthusiastically and clapped her hands together in her own prayer-like attitude. Seeing this, Regulus jumped to his feet and said, his face shining with eagerness, "You can count on me, father and mother! _I_ will not let you down!" He turned a sanctimonious stare on Sirius as he finished his 'moving' little declaration.

Sirius, however, had been moved to nothing but scorn for the lot of them. He laughed out loud, which earned him a dirty look from all present, save Andromeda, who was still hidden behind her book. Sirius's mother, who had remained silent thus far, walked over to him and stared down her nose at her wayward son. "You have something you want to say, _Sirius_?" she demanded, and the boy did not fail to notice the emphasis on his name. She had always addressed him as 'my son' before now. Sirius, however, did not really care.

"Well, it just seems to me that you have no cause to worry about our high and mighty family name anyway, since you still have one good little puppet to serve you," he said scornfully.

Sirius's mother drew her arm back suddenly, then _smack_!, she had slapped him as hard as she could across the face. He was knocked out of his chair and onto the floor, where he sat rubbing his stinging face and staring up at his mother in shock. She had never hit him like that before, and certainly never that hard. Nobody said anything for a moment, they all appeared as shocked as he was. Even his mother was looking somewhat like she couldn't believe what she had just done.

His father recovered first. He broke the deafening silence by saying, as he walked over to where Sirius was sitting on the floor, "Well, that serves you right, boy. I will not have you scorning your brother, at least he still remembers where his priorities lie." He grabbed Sirius by the arm and pulled him to his feet. "There will be no dinner for you tonight. Go to your room!"

Sirius was only too happy to obey. Satisfying his rumbling stomach was not worth having to put up with any more of this. Without a backward glance, he marched up to his room and slammed the door behind him as hard as he dared. He plopped onto his bed and stared angrily at the ceiling for several long minutes.

After a while, Sirius began to calm down a little. That whole scene really hadn't gone as bad as he had thought it might. Sure, it had been humiliating, and not a little annoying to have to put up with his parent's ranting, but the whole thing hadn't taken more than an hour. Sirius had been afraid it would go on all night, he remembered that Andromeda had been yelled at by her parents for three hours in her first year. She hadn't given them any cheek, though, like he had done. Well, he was willing to trade a slap on the face and an empty stomach for a two hour reprieve from his parent's lecture, no question. And maybe he could sneak downstairs later and get some food, as long as Kreacher didn't catch him. The house elf had never really liked Sirius, even before his parents decided to hate him, and though he still did what Sirius asked him too, he had never lost an opportunity to say something mean to him, or to make his life more difficult in some way or another. _Just like everyone else around here_, Sirius thought bitterly.

Deciding that the night was wasted anyway, he got up, changed into his pajamas, and climbed back into bed. He snuggled under his covers, relieved to find that his bed was as cozy and warm as he remembered. At least some things hadn't changed.

Sirius sighed heavily as he tried to get to sleep. He was already looking forward to the end of the Holidays, when he could get back to school and his friends. He knew that, now that he had been sorted into Gryffindor, things would never be the same between him and his family again. Always before, he had never dared to openly challenge his parents and relatives and their views, though he had never told them that he agreed with them either, like Regulus had. Sirius had simply kept his head down, believed the things he wanted and silently dismissed the rest as ignorant prejudice, and had basically been ignored, or treated with contempt as an ignorant simpleton, by all and sundry. 

But he knew all that had changed from the instant the Hat had shouted out his new House, and his Syltherin cousins had given him poisonous looks, while the Gryffindors had clapped rather unenthusiastically to welcome him into their midst. Most of them had recognized his name, and had wondered what he was doing there among them. But at least his fellow first-year boys had accepted him, and he finally had real friends that he felt like he had something in common with. But he had at last shown his true colors, red and gold instead of green and silver, and now there was no going back.

Sirius knew that it meant that he would not be ignored as much as before, because everyone would be watching him suspiciously, to see how many of those 'Gryffindor tendencies' he would exhibit. It was going to make his Holidays unbearable, just like he had known it would. Lying in the dark, Sirius vowed that he would not say or do anything that would make his parents not want to send him back to Hogwarts, for he felt that he would go mad if they made him stay at home instead. 

He only hoped he would be able to keep his promise.


	2. Unhappy Holidays

A/N- Agh!  I can't believe it's been a month since I posted the first chapter!  I heartfelt apology to all of my lovely readers: nicole, Cloud Lupine, Snuffles2, Trinity Day, Senav Gold, Neo, Drachenaugen, and padfoot-dreamer.  A really big THANK YOU for all of your reviews, I'm so glad you all liked the first chapter!  I definitely won't take as long to update next time, even if it kills me, so don't worry!  Ending a lovely vacation home, moving into a new apartment, not having a computer of my own, and restarting my job that makes me get up at 3:15 in the morning are all things that tend to cause delays, blah.  Anyone have a computer they want to sell to me real cheap?  Er, just kidding!

Anyway, I hope I have somewhat redeemed myself with this here chapter, since it is over twice as long as the first one, and much more angsty.  Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Unhappy Holidays

On Christmas Day, a few of Sirius's parents' other relations came for a visit. Sirius's father's older sister Elladora and his mother's cousin Araminta Meliflua were there, like always, and Sirius thought that both of them were psychotic. Just last year, Aunt Elladora had beheaded yet another one of their house elves, Kreacher's older brother Alfie, Christmas afternoon because he had stumbled while carrying the tea tray. Saying that he had clearly outlived his usefulness, the ancient woman had hung his head on the wall next to all of her previous victims, while the head had still been dripping blood. Cousin Araminta, as everyone called her, despised Muggles like no other, and Andromeda stayed out of her site as much as she possibly could to keep the old bat from ranting and raving about her Muggle Studies class. Sirius's father's other younger brother, Alphard, was away on business, which was too bad, since he was the only other relation of Sirius's that he could tolerate. 

But even though Uncle Alphard couldn't be there, he had still sent presents along, and had given Sirius a wooden box shaped like a treasure chest with ten Galleons in it. His only other decent present, a box full of candy, had come from Andromeda. Everyone else had given him books expounding upon the virtues of pure-bloodedness and the many evils inherent in all those of 'tainted blood.' By the time Sirius had unwrapped all these, he had a library on the subject that would have rivaled Hogwarts's own collection on the matter. It was really quite annoying, and Sirius had more than half a mind to burn all these books in a nice little bonfire before the Holidays were over. 

More of Sirius's insane relatives came for Christmas dinner that night, so that the table was expanded to accommodate everyone, though to Sirius it still seemed crowded. His great Uncle Tiberius, on his father's side, insisted that Sirius sit next to him, so that he could "keep a close eye on that wayward boy." So he was stuck in between him and Aunt Elladora, which was not to his liking at all. Conversation around the table centered, like always, on the importance of being pure blood, as well as on their many illustrious ancestors who had worked so tirelessly to see to it that the Black family line remained untainted. Sirius wished they would all just shut up, but instead of getting angry, he tuned them out by thinking about Hogwarts and his Gryffindor friends, whom he would see in a week and a half. 

Sirius was distracted from his thoughts when he heard his great Uncle Tiberius talking in a low voice to his Uncle Rigel, who was sitting on his other side. Uncle Tiberius was saying, "Lord Voldemort has the right idea, that's for sure. Don't know how he's going to do it exactly, but anyone who can rid the magical community of all the dirty blood it's currently infested with has got my support." 

"Do you think he'll try a purge? Many would resist, you know," Uncle Rigel replied, but then he looked up and noticed that Sirius had been watching them, who had been too slow to turn away. "Were you eavesdropping, boy?!" he roared out angrily, effectively halting all other conversation in the room. 

Before he could reply, Uncle Tiberius turned toward him, yelling, "You dirty sneak!" Then he backhanded Sirius across the face, _hard_. The force knocked him sideways into Aunt Elladora, who shoved him angrily back the other way. Sirius grabbed the edge of the table to keep himself steady as he waited for his head to clear, all too aware of the silence that still surrounded him. He knew if he looked up he would see everyone staring at him with disgust, and the thought made him more uncomfortable than the ringing in his head. But as his head cleared, he started to notice a stinging in his left cheek. Gingerly, he put his hand up to it and discovered a long, painful scratch running diagonally down from his nose to his jaw. Looking over at Uncle Tiberius's hands, he realized that it must have been made by the large ring he wore on his right hand. 

"That will teach you to mind your own business, boy," Sirius heard his father jeer from across the table, confirming to him that everyone _was_ still watching. 

"Yes, sir," Sirius mumbled contritely. He was not in the mood for an argument right now, but he only hoped that somebody would tell him to go to his room. It didn't happen, though. His reply seemed to be enough to satisfy everyone, and after a few minutes normal conversation had resumed around the table. Uncle Rigel and Tiberius, however, had moved on to a 'safer' topic, and were now deriding one of the Muggle-borns that worked in Rigel's office at the Ministry. 

Sirius kept his eyes on his plate throughout most of the rest of dinner. Listening to the conversations around him, which were all full of the same old tiresome prejudices and conceited pride, he began to feel a deep contempt for these people who were his family. He had felt feelings like this before, but never this strongly. It was as if Uncle Tiberius's blow had been the last straw he hadn't realized he'd still been holding, and every trace of affection or loyalty he might have still had for these people had just evaporated completely. 

Sirius lifted his eyes from his plate and slowly looked around the table. There were all of his obnoxiously eccentric aunts and uncles, his moronic cousins, his idiotic brother, and his arrogant parents. He still had kind feelings for Andromeda, but she was the only one. The rest just made him sick. 

All in all, Sirius was very glad when Christmas dinner was finally over. 

*~*~*~*

As the Holidays wore on, Sirius began to have a new respect for his cousin Andromeda. How she had put up with their families' nonsense for five and a half years already was anyone's guess. Every day at breakfast, Sirius would receive glares from all present except her as he sat down at the table. His father and Uncle Rigel would read the Daily Prophet as they ate, and regularly make scornful comments about the various mudbloods, Muggle-lovers, or wizarding families with tainted blood featured in the articles. Every time they did this, they would shoot glances over at Sirius or Andromeda, as if daring them to try and disagree with anything they just said. 

Bellatrix and Naricissa, however, were another matter entirely. They would usually be sitting on either side of Andromeda, as if they were determined to keep her as far away from Sirius as possible, and he suspected that they were acting on orders from their parents. Narcissa would usually content herself with shooting Sirius dirty looks, but not Bellatrix, who was in her third year at Hogwarts and one of the brawniest girls he had ever seen, as well as the stupidest and most immature. She would steal food off of his plate or knock over his drink whenever she was sitting close enough, and when she wasn't she would kick him under the table (which left painful bruises on his shins) or pelt him with her own food. Whenever he tried to retaliate or protest, Bellatrix would always say that it was all his fault, and of course she would be the one everyone believed. "He's bothering me, father! Make him stop!" And Sirius would always be the one to be reprimanded, no matter what he tried to do about it. "Stop bothering your cousin, Sirius, before we send you back to your room without any food!" His cousins didn't bother Andromeda as much as him, but Sirius guessed that she had had plenty to deal with before he became their new target. She would shoot him furtive looks of sympathy, but would shake her head to warn him of the futility of trying to do anything about it. 

Regulus, on the other hand, would usually just sit and passively watch his brother being tormented. He was nine, almost ten, and rather big for his age, while Sirius, to his shame, was on the small side for his age category. Unfortunately, it meant that the brothers ended up being roughly the same size. Sirius could only hope that he would have a growth spurt when he hit puberty, but that still seemed like such a long way off. In the meantime, Regulus was getting on his last nerve with his near-constant talk, all about what he would do once he got into Slytherin House, and how he would never even _dream_ of associating with members of _any_ other House, and on and on. Regulus had obviously picked up on the fact that he was now without a doubt his parents' favorite son, and he was milking it for all he was worth. Every time he made one of his intolerably sappy little pronouncements, his mother would glow with pride and his father would nod sanctimoniously, then all three would turn in unison to impale Sirius with identical haughty glares. Far from intimidating him, though, it just made him hate them all that much more. 

Sirius decided that the best way to keep the peace was simply not to ever say anything unless spoken to, and then he would keep his answers short and full of as much respect in his voice as he could manage. Thoughts of Hogwarts were the only things that kept him from losing his temper with his family and telling them all what he really felt, since he did not want to risk having them decide not to let him go back. At meal times he would keep his eyes on his plate and do his best to ignore everyone, though Bellatrix was always a challenge. He also started following Anromeda's example whenever he was forced to endure 'family togetherness time' and hide behind one of the books he had gotten for Christmas. He was never actually reading these books, however, but he would stare at them while he thought of something else, while still remembering to turn the page every few minutes. But at least the mere sight of them in his hands seemed to keep everyone satisfied for the time being. For the rest of the day, Sirius stayed in his room and tried to keep himself occupied with some of his own books that he actually enjoyed reading. He also ended up napping a lot, being bored all day was tiring. 

But despite Sirius's best efforts, the stupidness of his cousins and the loud obnoxiousness of his parents and his aunt and uncle made it very hard to ignore them sometimes. He got so angry with Bellatrix and her snide comments at breakfast one morning a week after Christmas, that he did accidental magic and shattered his full glass of orange juice. It sprayed everyone at the table and earned him confinement to his room for the rest of the day, a punishment that he did not mind one bit. 

But while Sirius's disgust with his family increased every day, he still managed to hold his tongue and keep the general peace until two days before the end of the Holidays. It was dinner time, and Uncle Rigel, who had come home very angry about something or another, was ranting and raving about the stupidity of his fellow Ministry employees. Sirius did his best not to pay attention, but then he heard a familiar name. "And then Potter, that other imbecile I was telling you about, Louise," Uncle Rigel was saying to his wife, "brought his idiot of a wife and his brat of a son into work this afternoon. I've never seen such a pack of Muggle-loving, moronic, ignorant, stupid, arrogant people in all my-"

"Hey!" Sirius yelled out angrily, his need to defend the honor of James and his family at last outweighing his resolve to keep silently docile. Uncle Rigel turned a poisonous glare on Sirius, but before he could say anything, the boy continued recklessly on, having finally lost all of his remaining self-control. "I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't talk about the Potters like that, James is my friend!" he practically yelled, the sarcasm in his voice canceling out the politeness of his words. 

Uncle Rigel, who had rapidly turned very red in the face, slowly stood up from the table. "You have a problem with my opinions, do you boy?" he asked in a low and dangerous sounding voice. 

"Yes, I do, as a matter of fact," Sirius answered defiantly. He had known he was in for it the moment he had interrupted his uncle, so there was no point in backing down now. "You're always accusing other people of being arrogant and stupid and everything, but you can't even see that _you're_ worse than all of them put together!" Sirius knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he had gone too far, but it felt very satisfying to finally say one of the things he had been thinking all Holiday nonetheless. 

Uncle Rigel, predictably, started to storm around the table towards Sirius with his arm upraised. Sirius braced himself for the blow he knew was coming, but to his surprise his father called out, "Rigel, stop!" 

Uncle Rigel, who was only about three feet from Sirius now, stopped and turned to his brother. "Why, Procyon?" he asked sharply. "You heard was he said to me!" 

"I did," Sirius's father answered, his voice glacially calm. "I do not deny that the boy deserves to be punished, Rigel. However," he continued, as he also stood up, "he is my son to discipline, not yours." A moment later he grabbed his son by the arm and hauled him roughly to his feet. Sirius had a brief glimpse of his uncle looking more livid than he had ever seen him before he was dragged from the room. His father marched him up the stairs to his bedroom, where he shoved him unceremoniously inside. 

"You are to stay right here until your mother and I decide what to do with you, and you are not to leave for any reason, do you hear me, boy?" Without waiting for a reply, his father slammed the door shut, leaving Sirius alone in his room and feeling rather confused. Why had his father stopped Uncle Rigel from hitting him? He doubted very much that it had been out of kindness. He also felt a little apprehensive wondering what sort of punishment his parents would come up with. 

Sirius walked over to his bed and lay down. Staring up at the ceiling, he decided that perhaps he should not have been so rash in telling his uncle what he thought of him. As good as it had felt at the time, it was definitely not worth the risk of never going back to Hogwarts. But before he could get too angry with himself, Sirius decided it would be best to wait and see what his parents chose for his fate. And truth be told, he was surprised his good behavior had lasted as long as it had. Too bad he had been so close to the end, though. 

A few hours later, Sirius was getting ready for bed when there was a soft knock on his door. He had a feeling he knew who it was, and sure enough, Andromeda was standing in the hallway in her nightgown when he opened the door, which he was pleasantly surprised to find hadn't been spell-locked. Silently, he stepped aside to let his cousin in, then closed the door softly behind him. "Aren't you sharing a room with your sisters? How'd you get away?" he asked when he turned back around to face her. 

"Really quietly, after waiting what seemed like hours for them to fall asleep. I had thought you might want to talk to somebody," Andromeda said softly in reply. "Am I right?" 

Sirius nodded, grateful for some friendly company. "Have a seat," he offered as he sat down on his bed. He watched Andromeda pick up his pillow and set it in her lap as she sat down next to him, but he felt too nervous at first to ask the question that was foremost on his mind. But when she turned to face him, her big blue eyes full of sympathy, he managed to blurt out, "You know what they've decided to do to me?" 

Andromeda shrugged. "Not really, I'm afraid. So far, our fathers have been too busy yelling at each other to give you much thought." 

"Why?" Sirius asked, curious. Their fathers usually got along quite well, too well, in Sirius's opinion. 

"It all started last night, after 'family together time,'" Andromeda began to explain. She brushed some loose strands of brown hair from her face before continuing, "I'm not too clear on all the details myself, but apparently Bellatrix had started playing in the entry hallway with one of your father's porcelain statues of Salazar Slytherin, when she dropped and broke it." A look of satisfaction came over Andromeda's pretty face, and her blue eyes twinkled as she went on with her story. "Your father started yelling at her, and then, if you can believe it, he _spanked_ her, and so of course she ran to my father crying and screaming, and so they got into a big argument about the propriety of disciplining each other's children." She rolled her eyes. "Bellatrix, as you know, has always been father's favorite daughter, and so he couldn't understand how _anyone_ could dare to even _think_ of laying a hand on her, let alone his _own_ brother. He's always been a blind idiot." 

Sirius nodded in agreement, but asked with a grin, "My father really spanked Bellatrix? I would have loved to have seen that." 

Andromeda laughed softly. "Me, too." Then her smile faded as she turned thoughtfully to Sirius. "It must have been a _really_ bad argument for Uncle Procyon to stop my father from disciplining _you_ of all people, especially after what you said to him." 

Sirius shrugged. "My father probably just saw it as the perfect opportunity to get some revenge on his brother for daring to argue with him. He's always been vindictive like that." 

Andromeda nodded, but didn't say anything. They sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. His cousin was the first to break the silence with a heavy sigh. "Oh, Sirius," she said quietly, "however did we end up with these people for a family?" 

Sirius shook his head, feeling an all too familiar wave of bitterness sweep over him. "It's not fair," he whispered softly. 

Andromeda reached over and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I know it's not," she said softly. After a moment, her face lit up a little, and she continued, "Look on the bright side, though." 

"What bright side?" Sirius asked incredulously, surprised that his cousin could even think that such a thing was a possibility. 

Andromeda smiled gently. "Well, when you think about it, you don't really have that much time left with the family, now that you've started Hogwarts. Two months out of ten a year, plus two weeks for Christmas, equals just a little over one year out of seven." She put her arm around Sirius's shoulders. "That doesn't sound too bad, huh, considering that you used to have to spend _all_ your time here with these people?" 

"I suppose not," Sirius conceded reluctantly. But then his earlier worries returned. "But what if they don't let me go back to Hogwarts for what I said to Uncle Rigel? And for being a Gryffindor?" 

"I doubt very much they'd do that, Sirius," Andromeda said thoughtfully, her arm still wrapped around her cousin. "For one thing, after that orange juice incident the other day, your mother said that she couldn't wait for you to go back to Hogwarts, and you know how she always gets her way. And for another thing, I don't think Professor Dumbledore will let them keep you away from an education, not without a fight, anyway." 

"You really think so?" 

"Of course, little cousin." Sirius couldn't help but smile at the old nickname. Andromeda continued, "I also just have to say, I was very impressed with how well you behaved this whole Holiday. I had been expecting you to get into trouble every five minutes, but you only got sent to your room, let's see…" she started counting on the fingers of her free hand, "one...two...three...four times. Nicely done, if I do say so myself." 

Sirius grinned sheepishly. "It was because I thought if I misbehaved, they wouldn't let me go back to school, and I'd be stuck here forever. I wasn't about to let that happen." 

Andromeda snorted. "I don't blame you." A nostalgic look came over her face as she continued, "You remember what happened during Christmas break of my first year? When you were six?" 

"Not really," Sirius said after a moment. "But I have a vague memory of you and Bellatrix getting into a catfight in front of the Christmas tree when I was little. Was that the year?" 

Andromeda giggled. "Yep. We knocked over the tree, in fact. You were the only other person in the room when we started fighting, and I remember you cheering me on. So of course they sent you to your room without dinner that night, same as me. They let you out the next morning, but they kept me locked in my room until dinner." Her grin widened. "You slipped pancakes under my door after breakfast, though, and after lunch you slipped in all the parts of a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich one at a time, since it was too thick to fit under the door all at once." 

"Hey, yeah, I remember that!" Sirius exclaimed excitedly. "I stole the sandwich from Regulus, and all the pancakes from Bellatrix, since she had too many to count, anyway." 

Andromeda laughed softly, but after a moment her smile faded, and a sad look came over her features. "Oh, Sirius, you're a great little cousin," she said, her grip on his shoulders tightening a little. "I'll miss you when I graduate." 

Sirius turned to her thoughtfully. "Won't you come and visit?" 

Andromeda shook her head regretfully. "There's no way our parents are going to allow that, I'm afraid, not after what I plan on doing." Her sad look was replaced by a defiant one as she went on, "I'm going to be blasted off that wretched family tree for sure, and I can't say I'll be sorry, either." 

"What are you going to do?" Sirius was amazed, he had never seen his cousin looking so rebellious. She was usually so sweet and docile, excepting that catfight five years ago, but Bellatrix had started that anyway as he recalled. 

To Sirius's even greater surprise, and evil-looking grin spread across Andromeda's face. "I'm going to marry my fiancé, a fellow Ravenclaw named Ted Tonks." The evil grin got bigger. "He's a Muggle-born." 

Sirius's eyes widened in shock. "No way! You're joking, right?" He never would have thought his cousin had it in her to do something so devious. 

Andromeda shook her head in grim satisfaction. "Nope. We've been dating since fourth year, and we got engaged a month ago. That's why I signed up for Muggle Studies, actually, I decided it would be a good way to get to know him better, and, of course, he helps me with all my homework," she added, a mischievous glint in her eye. 

"Are you sure Bellatrix and Narcissa don't know?" Sirius asked, suddenly feeling anxious for his cousin. "It would be really bad if they found out before you graduated." 

"It would, yes, but we've been really careful so far," Andromeda replied, then shook her head. "I think it's really ironic that they found out about my Muggle Studies class when they snooped in my bag at breakfast one morning last month, but they totally missed the reason why I was taking it in the first place. Stupid gits." 

"I agree." 

"I wish you could stay with us once we get a place of our own and Ted has a decent job, Sirius, but I know our parents would never allow it," Andromeda said regretfully. 

"I understand," Sirius said, and meant it. He didn't want his favorite cousin to get into even more trouble than she was going to already, especially not on his account. "I'm impressed though, Andromeda, I must admit I didn't think you had it in you to cause so much trouble for the family. Congratulations!" 

Andromeda laughed. "Why, thank you, Sirius. But really, I've felt for a long time that I can't go through the rest of my life with my name on that horrible tapestry, you know? _Toujours__ Pur_, indeed. It makes me sick." 

"Me too," Sirius said, nodding fervently. "I know exactly how you feel. And don't worry," he added with grim determination, "I'll find my own way to get my name off that cursed tapestry, you mark my words!" 

"Now Sirius," Andromeda admonished, giving her cousin a rather stern look, "don't you go doing anything rash, especially not without a plan. Wait until graduation at least, I don't want to see my little cousin end up on the street." 

"I know," Sirius said with a heavy sigh. "I'll be a good little boy, though I really can't guarantee how long I'll be able to stand it." 

"Well, as long as you try your best, I guess I can't ask for anything more," Andromeda said with a shrug. Then she looked over at the clock on the wall and winced. "Oh, I'd better get to bed. Father is taking us home tomorrow so Bellatrix can get some of her stuff that she 'absolutely must have' but _somehow_ managed to do without all year. Trips like that always end up taking all day, but we'll be back tomorrow night, since we leave for Hogwarts the next morning. I'll try to check up on you then, if I can get away again." She made a face. "I wish I didn't have to go at all, but Father always insists on doing these things as a family. He's so annoying." She got up and stretched, then headed for the door. Turning back, she said quietly, "Goodnight, Sirius. Keep out of trouble tomorrow, okay?" 

Sirius nodded. After she left, he lay in bed thinking, feeling better than he had all Holiday. It was, after all, good to know that he wasn't the only one who hated their family. 

*~*~*~*

The next day passed intolerably slow for Sirius. As he had been afraid of, his parents did not come and get him for breakfast, or lunch, or even dinner, though he knew they were still home because he could hear them occasionally moving about the house. He wished they had gone with Uncle Rigel, but he figured that the brothers must still be mad at each other. He would also hear Kreacher shuffle past at regular intervals, no doubt acting on his parents' orders to make sure he stayed put. 

By mid-afternoon, Sirius was too hungry to concentrate on any of his books, so he was left with nothing to do for the rest of the day but stare at the clock and listen to his stomach grumble. Unfortunately, solitary confinement and food deprivation had always been his parents' favorite form of punishment, but at least it seemed it was all they had decided to do with him, after all. 

A few hours after sunset Sirius decided that he couldn't stand being hungry any longer. His head ached, and he couldn't get to sleep. He was definitely grateful now that his father had been too agitated last night to remember to lock his door. Sirius waited a while longer after hearing the last noises in the house, made by the return of Uncle Rigel and company, die down, then he crept out of his room and down the hall as silently as he could. He heard Narcissa's voice droning on in his cousins' bedroom when he tiptoed past, which explained why Andromeda hadn't come to check up on him. 

Sirius made his way slowly and stealthily through the house and down the stairs, trying his best to remember where everything was in the dark, especially the things that would take exception to getting bumped into or tripped over. As a result, he only had one minor mishap, involving the stand with the statue of Slytherin that Bellatrix had been caught playing with the other night. Luckily, Sirius managed to catch it before it fell again, though in his opinion it more than deserved to be broken twice in one week. Not right now, though. 

Finally, Sirius made it to the top of the stairs to the kitchen without further incident. He was halfway down when the door in front of him opened and Bellatrix, of all people, stepped out of the kitchen, her mouth and hands full of food. She caught sight of him and grinned obnoxiously. 

"Why, if it isn't my wee cousin, out of his room like the bad boy that he is," she said with a sneer, spraying crumbs into the air. 

"Shut up, Bellatrix," Sirius said, more than a little irritated with his bad luck.

"Make me!" his cousin taunted, moronically predictable, as usual. And then, faster than Sirius would have thought to give her credit for, she bounded up the stairs towards him, and before he could react she had him in a headlock. 

"Let go of me!" he yelled as she hauled him up the stairs while still managing to hold onto the pastries in her hands. 

"No!" Bellatrix said gleefully as they stepped into the hallway. "You need for someone to teach you a lesson, and that someone's _me_!" 

Not about to let that happen, Sirius twisted mightily in her grip until he was in a position to kick her in the shin, which he did as hard as he could. She howled in pain and dropped her pastries, much to his satisfaction. Then he shoved her away with his arms as she let out fresh howls of outrage over her dropped dessert. His shove wasn't enough to knock her over as he had hoped, but she did loosen her grip enough to let him escape. 

Unfortunately, Sirius only managed to get a few feet away before he felt a very heavy weight knock into him from behind, and he crashed to the floor, winded. 

"You little rat fink!" he heard Bellatrix snarl in his ear. "Now you're really going to pay!" 

Sirius felt two strong hands seize his arms and pull them behind him. Then he was yanked to his feet as lightly as if he were a rag doll. Angrily, he kicked back behind him and once again made contact with Bellatrix's shins. Once again she howled and loosened her grip, but struggle as he did, Sirius only managed to free one arm. Bellatrix grabbed his shoulder instead, and then she roughly shoved him into the nearest wall, head first, hard enough for Sirius to see stars. Before he could recover, she pulled him back away from the wall and practically threw him across the hall, so that he landed hard on his back on a chest of drawers. Before he could move, she was on him again. She used her legs to pin his against the side of the chest, so that he couldn't kick out again. At the same instant, she pinned his arms to the top of the chest with her elbows, while her hands snaked themselves around his throat. 

"Get off of me, you freak!" Sirius yelled angrily, struggling in vain to free himself. 

"Don't you call me a freak, you filthy mudblood lover," Bellatrix snarled in response. Then she started tightening her grip on Sirius's neck as she continued, "Now you're gonna pay for what you said about my father last night! How dare you compare him to low-life scum!" 

"Bellatix, let me go!" Sirius managed to choke out as his cousin's fingers continued to squeeze his throat. 

But Bellatrix merely continued to rant, apparently oblivious to her cousin's struggles. "You're not worthy to be a Black, you and my dratted sister! Ignorant, stupid, foolish…" 

Sirius was no longer listening. Bellatrix's fingers were pressing hard against his windpipe, and had now tightened so much that he could longer breathe. He tried to tell her so, but all he could manage to get out was a strangled "C-." Looking up at his cousin, he felt the first stirrings of panic. She seemed to be totally beyond reason. Did she know she was choking him to death? Vaguely, he wondered if she would even care anyway. 

Sirius attempted to renew his struggles while his lungs started to burn for want of air. Bellatrix was still droning on above him, but try as he might, he could not get her to loosen her grip. Spots started dancing in front of Sirius's eyes, and he realized with horror that it was a very likely possibility he was about to die. 

Several things happened at that instant. Sirius heard a loud crashing sound that seemed to come from all around, and he felt several sharp things fall on his head. At the same time, he heard a blood-curdling scream from somewhere above him, and suddenly the pressure on his neck and body were gone. His legs gave way, and he slid to the floor, coughing and gasping for air. 

Sirius just lay there on his side with his eyes squeezed shut as he heard shouts and people thundering down the stairs, as well as Bellatrix's continual screaming. But he was too occupied trying to force air past his bruised throat to care about anything else at the moment. It wasn't long before he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, and the scared-sounding voice of Andromeda exclaiming, "Sirius! What happened?! Are you all right?" He couldn't respond, though, and after a moment he felt Andromeda lift his head onto her lap. She started to gently brush off whatever it was that was on his face and in his hair and encourage him to just keep breathing, advice he was more than willing to follow. His throat still hurt horribly, and it was torture every time he had to cough, so he was very grateful to have such a comforting presence nearby. 

"What happened here?!" Sirius heard his father shout suddenly, followed by the startled exclamations of the other adults. 

Sirius opened his eyes then, just as all the candles in the hall were lit, and was just as startled as everyone else by what he saw. Bellatrix was lying nearby, still screaming and hollering. She had her hands over her face, and he was shocked to see that there was blood oozing out from between her fingers. Narcissa was kneeling beside her, trying in vain to reassure her sister. Also, there was glass all over the hallway floor, and it crunched under the adults' feet as they rushed to the scene. Bellatrix's parents' knelt beside her, and her mother took over Narcissa's role in trying to reassure the girl. 

"HE TRIED TO KILL ME!" Bellatrix shrieked hysterically as soon as she heard her mother's voice, and everyone turned to glare daggers at Sirius. 

"That's not true!" Andromeda yelled out defiantly, and Sirius was glad that she was defending him, since he doubted that he could talk right now. "He's got glass on him too! It was Bellatrix who tried to kill _him_! She was strangling him, and he's got the bruises forming all over his neck to prove it!" 

Sirius's father and Aunt Louise both looked slightly startled, but his mother narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and Uncle Rigel glared angrily. "Don't you try to defend your cousin, Andromeda! Bellatrix would never do such a thing, and I won't have you accusing her! It's his fault!" 

"Just look at his neck!" Andromeda yelled back, but she was drowned out by more of Bellatrix's hysterical screams. 

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO HIM! HE'S LYING! HE TRIED TO KILL ME!!" 

At an entreaty from Aunt Louise, Uncle Rigel foregoed the argument to help his wife carry their daughter into the drawing room, followed by Sirius's mother, Narcissa, and Regulus, who had just arrived. Sirius's father, however, walked over to kneel beside his son. He pulled Sirius's head back to get a better look at his neck, then he asked angrily, "What were you doing out of your room, boy? You couldn't just stay in there until tomorrow morning?" None too gently, he yanked Sirius to his feet, whose head started to spin, making him feel slightly ill. He didn't have time to steady himself, though, as his father pulled him towards the drawing room. "I've no doubt that you deserved what Bellatrix was trying to do to you, either, you foolish, insolent boy!" 

As they walked, Sirius noticed that every breakable object in the hall had been shattered. The glass covering the pictures, as well as the mirrors, porcelain statues, crystal figurines, china vases, and glass bottles all lay in ruins. The mirror that had been above the chest of drawers was no exception, and Sirius at last understood what must have happened. He had done accidental magic again when he realized that he was about to die, as a self-defense mechanism of sorts, by shattering everything breakable in the vicinity. Bellatrix, who had been above him facing the mirror, had been hit full in the face, while he had been protected from the worst of it by her fat head. How ironic, he thought nastily, not feeling sorry at all.  He was also pleased to note that the horrid statue of Slytherin _had_ broken again after all.

When they entered the drawing room a little later, Sirius was dumped unceremoniously onto a sofa, where he sat rubbing his still aching neck. Bellatrix was lying on another sofa across the room, moaning and sobbing theatrically, while her mother used her wand and a wet cloth to get the glass out and heal her face. Everyone was crowded around her, offering reassuring words and sympathies, enough to make Sirius's stomach resume its churning. 

"Are you going to be all right?" Andromeda asked softly as she sat down next to him. He nodded with a grateful smile, but before he could try to say anything, Uncle Rigel started yelling again at his father. 

"Are you just going to let that brat get away with this, Procyon?!" 

"It was obviously accidental magic, Rigel, no doubt as self-defense to stop _your_ daughter from choking him to death!" 

"MY DAUGHTER DID NOT TRY TO KILL THAT BOY!!" Uncle Rigel hollered as loud as he could. 

"Then I suppose he inflicted those bruises on his neck himself, did he?" Sirius's father retaliated, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 

"I can't see any bruises! But I can plainly see the cuts all over Bellatrix's face!" 

"Then why don't you look closer at my son, Rigel?!" 

"There's no need, Procyon! My daughter is the victim here, and I won't have you turning this to your advantage! I have more than half a mind to press charges, you know!" 

"You wouldn't dare," Sirius's father replied in a dangerously low voice, but his brother just crossed his arms and glared defiantly back. They stood facing each other for several long minutes, both red in the face and very angry, while the only sound in the room was Bellatrix's moaning. No one dared to interrupt them, but finally Uncle Rigel broke the silence. 

"_If_ my daughter _was_ strangling your son, which I still doubt very much, then your son must have done something to deserve it." 

"He called me a freak!" Bellatrix said suddenly from the coach. Sirius saw that her face was back to normal now, just as if nothing had happened, but she was still continuing to moan and sob like the idiot that she was. "And he was out of his room when he wasn't supposed to be!" she added for good measure. 

"There, you see," Uncle Rigel said triumphantly, but his brother just glared. 

"And you're saying that justifies the murder of my son, one of the only two Blacks that remain to carry on the family name?" 

"Now don't go bringing that into this, Procyon! You know you doubt as much as I do that Sirius will be upholding the family honor, in any case!" 

Sirius's father and Uncle Rigel continued to argue for several minutes, though they got nowhere. Finally, Aunt Louise pointed out that it was late, and the children needed to get to bed so they could be rested for the trip tomorrow. Sirius got to his feet with the others, and was halfway to the door when Uncle Rigel called him back angrily. 

"Just a minute, boy! You're not just going to let him leave unpunished, are you, Procyon? I demand that you discipline your son to my satisfaction!" 

"I could say the same about your daughter, Rigel! Sirius, leave, we'll deal with you later," his father said, and he hastened to obey. 

Sirius had barely left when he heard his brother say, still in the room, "Are you really just going to let him get away with that, Father? It's not fair, and I-" 

"Quiet, Regulus, and mind your own business!" Sirius heard his father say in reply. A few seconds later Regulus stormed past, but not before he gave Sirius a _very_ nasty look. There was a slight traffic jam on the stairs as Bellatrix moaned that she was too weak to walk up them, and she refused to budge until her sisters helped her, one pushing and one pulling. Once in the hallway, he whispered a quiet goodnight to Andromeda, then proceeded on to his room. Looking in the mirror, Sirius saw that he also had cuts on his face from the glass, but of course his aunt wouldn't have cared about that. He looked at his throat and winced, the bruises on it were already plain as day, and he had a feeling that they would get even darker before they got lighter. Turning from the mirror, Sirius got into bed, reflecting with no great amount of annoyance that he was still hungry, and now his throat hurt too much to eat anything. 

It felt to Sirius that he had barely fallen asleep when someone shook him awake. He looked around confusedly, seeing that it was still dark. "Wha-" he whispered sleepily. 

"Get up, boy, and come with me," his father said quietly, and soon Sirius found himself being pulled down the hallway once again. He was dragged all the way back to the drawing room, which was still brightly lit. His mother and Uncle Rigel were the only ones still up, and Sirius saw from the clock on the wall that it was almost one in the morning. He had only been asleep for an hour. "Sit," his father commanded again, pointing to a writing desk in the corner. There was nothing there but a very thick roll of parchment and a black quill, the sight of which made Sirius's heart fall into his stomach. He knew what was coming. 

"Now, boy, your father and I have come to an agreement at last," Rigel said triumphantly as he walked over to the desk. "We have agreed that I won't press charges, and in return you get punished like you deserve. Otherwise," he continued, leaning over the desk to sneer at Sirius, "I pull strings at the Ministry and press a myriad of charges against you, in which case your parents will have no choice but to keep you from going back to school while Ministry officials conduct an investigation." He leaned in real close and whispered, "And I hear those things can take _years_ to resolve, so much paperwork, you know." 

Sirius looked up at his parents, who glared angrily back. He could tell that neither one wanted him to be forced to stay home any more than he did. "You can thank your mother for giving me the idea for your punishment. I was all for beating you with a cane until you begged for mercy, but I decided that I liked her idea better," Uncle Rigel said, gesturing at the parchment. He began to elaborate, "Now, this parchment is six feet long, and it has to be completely filled with lines, from top to bottom, before we leave to take everyone to King's Cross station, or you're not going, and I press charges, understand?" 

Uncle Rigel waited for Sirius to nod, then he grabbed the boy's right hand and placed the black quill into it. He unrolled the top of the parchment and forced Sirius's hand down onto it. "Now," he said, "you are to write this message, in exactly the size I'm going to indicate here." With that, he pulled out his wand and muttered a spell. Sirius's hand began to move across the parchment of its own accord, and he bit his lip as the quill dug into his hand to write the message in his own blood. "I will never again disrespect my Uncle Rigel, nor his daughter Bellatrix, nor will I ever again lie, do accidental magic, or in any other way cause trouble for any of my noble relations." Uncle Rigel pronounced these words very slowly, and Sirius's hand was forced to spell out each one as it was said. Naturally, the words were much too small, so that the whole sentence fit on one line. "Now I will show you how much space to leave in between lines," Rigel said after he muttered the spell again, and Sirius was forced to write the sentence once more. The space between lines was, of course, also very small. "I will examine your work tomorrow morning, if you finish on time, and if your handwriting remains neat to my satisfaction throughout the parchment, you may then have leave to return to Hogwarts." 

"Since Rigel is going to press his charges if you don't finish on time, boy, you had better get started," Sirius's father said, with an angry look at his brother. With that, they all turned and left the room, but Uncle Rigel turned in the doorway to give his nephew a triumphant sneer before heading off to bed. 

Sirius sat still for a few minutes just staring at the parchment, feeling a little overwhelmed by what he had been asked to do. How was he supposed to fill this entire parchment without bleeding to death? And in only nine hours, when he was so tired? But just as he started to despair, images of his fellow first-year Gryffindors came to his mind, and he was heartened by the memory of their friendly faces and caring smiles. If he did what he was supposed to, he would see them again soon, later today in fact, but if not, there was no telling if he would ever see them again. Not to mention that he also wouldn't receive a magical education and become a qualified wizard, either. 

Gritting his teeth in grim determination, Sirius got to work. It was hard going, and after a few hours his hand was bleeding freely. From earlier experiences, he had learned that it didn't do any good to write slowly, no matter how much it hurt, because then it would only just take longer and hurt that much more. Several times he wanted to quit, or at least to lay his head on the desk and rest a while, but he kept reminding himself that it was the only way he could get back to Hogwarts, and that otherwise he would be stuck here for who knew how long. He had promised himself earlier that he wouldn't say or do anything to make his parents not want to let him go back to school, and now that he had almost blown it, this was the only way he could keep his promise. And keep it he would. 

Around five in the morning, Sirius had to go quickly to his bedroom and retrieve his only handkerchief from his school trunk to wrap around his hand. Too bad he had forgotten his scarf back at school. His hand had started to drip blood all over the writing desk, and he didn't want it to mess up the parchment and cause him to not pass inspection. Unfortunately, the inspection also meant that he could not switch hands and let his left take the burden for a while, since that would make his handwriting too messy, but it would also, of course, take too much time. He also wished that he could get a bite to eat from the kitchen, now that Bellatrix was in bed, but he wasn't sure if he could spare that time either. He had no choice but to get back to work. 

Two hours later, about the time the sun started rising, Sirius noticed that the handkerchief was soaked through, and blood had started dripping down his arm again. He was over half-way through by now, but his hand, which ached horribly, was shaking so much that he had had to slow way down in order to keep his handwriting neat. He was soon fighting to keep back tears of pain, frustration, and exhaustion as the cursed quill dug ever deeper into his hand. He told himself sternly that he was too old to cry, and it would only make his throat hurt worse, anyway. That thought reminded him of why he was here in the first place, and he felt a fresh surge of anger toward Bellatrix and Uncle Rigel. And though the anger didn't stop his hand from hurting, at least it gave him renewed strength and resolve to keep going. He would not miss the train to Hogwarts, no matter what those two tried to do to stop him. 

Around eight-thirty, just when Sirius was beginning to feel that he just couldn't take the pain in his hand any longer, he unrolled another section of parchment and saw that he was nearing the end. He could have cried with relief, but instead he bit his lip and kept on going. 

About half an hour later, Sirius was done at last. He dropped the hateful black quill, slumped back in his seat, and closed his tired eyes. He had done it, and with plenty of time to spare. He opened his eyes and looked down at his hand, which was throbbing unmercifully. There wasn't a single inch of the handkerchief that wasn't red, and so was most of his pajama sleeve. He saw that there was a lot of blood on the desk too, but he had been careful to keep the parchment unsmudged, though technically his blood was all over that as well. Now he could only hope that Uncle Rigel would be satisfied with his work. If he wasn't…well, he didn't even want to think about that right now. 

Sirius got up and made his way slowly to his room. His stomach still felt like a gaping black chasm in the middle of his body, but right now all he could think about was getting to bed. He stumbled tiredly into his room without having run into any of his 'noble relations', thankfully, though he could hear them in other parts of the house. Sirius knew he needed to take care of his hand before he did anything else, so he looked around his room for something else to wrap it in. He decided that his pajama top was his best bet, since it was ruined anyway. After several difficult moments, he managed to rip the left sleeve off and wrap it around his hand, then he cut the rest of it into strips for later use, since he had a feeling that his hand was going to be bleeding for a while yet. 

Sirius had just finished tearing up the last of his pajamas when he heard his mother call for him from downstairs. He sighed mightily, so much for a nice lovely nap before they left. With a last longing glance at his bed, Sirius headed downstairs, following his mother back into the drawing room. Uncle Rigel was standing by the desk, parchment in hand, while his father looked on. "Well, well," his uncle began when he caught sight of Sirius, "you've been a very productive boy, haven't you?" 

Too tired to think of a reply, Sirius sat down on the sofa to await the verdict. He just hoped his uncle wouldn't blather on for too long before he pronounced it. He watched as Uncle Rigel slowly unrolled the parchment a section at a time to inspect it, which took several minutes. "Well?" Sirius's father asked impatiently after his brother finally set the parchment back on the desk. "Are you ready to put this nonsense behind us yet or not, Rigel?" 

Uncle Rigel glared at Sirius before answering. "I suppose I am," he said reluctantly, "though the boy had better behave himself better from now on, or I won't be so lenient next time." With that, he left the room with a haughty huff. 

Sirius's father watched him go, then sneered sarcastically, "How gracious of him." Turning to his wife, he continued, "You know, dear, Rigel is starting to become insufferable. I would've almost liked to have seen him try to press charges against me, just to see how hard he fell in the end. With all of the other matters I have to attend to, however, now was not a good time. So I decided it was best to placate him for the time being, it's only Sirius after all, and a well planned revenge is always more effective in any case. But mark my words, dear, he _will_ pay for his insolence." 

"I know he will, my dear," Sirius's mother replied with a self-satisfied grin. Then she turned to Sirius and said, "Well, boy, hurry up, breakfast is in the kitchen, the others have probably already finished. We leave in half an hour, and you had better be ready on time, you hear me?" 

"Yes, mother," Sirius replied, getting up wearily, but gratefully, from the couch. He had been able to keep his promise after all; he was going back to Hogwarts.   
As Sirius made his way down to the kitchen, he started reflecting on what his father had said, and decided that he felt used. His father had only let Uncle Rigel punish him in order to get his brother off his back, and that way he would have more time for a well-planned revenge later on. _Thanks a lot, father dear_, Sirius thought sarcastically, but at least he would be making Rigel's life difficult in the future. Knowing Sirius's luck, though, he knew they would probably be best of buddies again by next week.  It would almost have been fun to watch them bring each other down.

Regulus was the only one still in the kitchen when Sirius entered, and he looked like he was still in the same bad mood he had been in last night. Sirius ignored him as he sat down at the table, already set with his food, though it looked like it had been getting cold for a while now. 

"What happened to your hand?" Regulus asked, looking sullen. 

"None of your business," Sirius replied irritably. 

Regulus huffed in annoyance, but didn't say anything else. Sirius ate his food as quickly as he could with his sore throat, which luckily didn't hurt quite as much as it had earlier. He downed his orange juice last, and as he did so he noticed that his brother was watching him carefully, his loaded fork poised over his plate, apparently forgotten. Sirius banged his empty glass down on the table. "What?" he snapped irritably. 

"Nothing," Regulus replied, his face going slightly red. He quickly returned to his breakfast without another glance at his brother. 

Sirius rolled his eyes as he left the table, glad that he wouldn't have to put up with Regulus again for several more months. He hurried to his room to finish packing, very relieved indeed that he was about to head back to Hogwarts at last. 

On the way to King's Cross station, Sirius didn't have a chance to speak to Andromeda privately, but he smiled at her to reassure her that he was alright. She smiled back, and he knew that she was as happy as he was to finally be out of that wretched house. 

Once on Platform 9¾, Sirius smiled to see all of his fellow students milling about, ready to go back to school. He was very grateful that the Holidays were finally over. A few minutes later, he was sitting in a compartment with his three good friends, who had demanded to know what had happened to him the moment they laid eyes on him. And as he told them all about it, he watched their growing outrage and decided that he was very glad indeed to finally be back around people who cared.


	3. Consequences

Padfoot's Bone pokes her head stealthily into her story. "Hellooo, anybody there?" There is no response. The wind howls forlornly through the empty web pages, and suddenly a tumble-weed rolls by. Seeing that the place is indeed completely deserted, Padfoot's Bone creeps in on tipty-toes. The place is a wreck. Rotting vegetables (mostly tomatoes) litter the floor, as do protest signs bearing messages such as: **_Padfoot's__ Bone Sucks!_** and _**Will you ever finish this story already?**_Hanging her head in shame, Padfoot's Bone makes her way over to the Update Story button, and presses it! Chapter 3 at last! "It's just too bad I've already lost all my readers! Now to clean this place up! La la la la la…"

Chapter 3: Consequences

James Potter had been really excited to be going back to Hogwarts. As much as he loved being home with his parents, it just wasn't as exciting as school. Sure, he didn't have homework, but he also didn't have his friends to play with, or anyone to torment and play jokes on either. He had been a little apprehensive, though, to hear how Sirius' holiday had gone. His friend had looked so glum when they had parted two weeks ago, like he was going to his doom or something. When James finally did see his friend again, he finally understood why.

Sirius looked terrible. He had several cuts on his face, plus some painful looking bruises on his neck. James could see that his hand was hurt too from the blood-soaked pajama sleeve that he had tied around it. But worst of all was the story that Sirius was now telling them. James felt more and more outraged as he listened to it. How could those people be so mean! They didn't seem to care about Sirius at all. When he got to the part where his father had only let his uncle punish him like that because he was too busy to do anything about it, James couldn't help but exclaim indignantly, "Those old gits! I can't believe no one believed you! Their own son!"

Sirius shook his head. "Welcome to my world," he said glumly. His voice had become a little raspy as he talked, which was to be expected considering that he had nearly been choked to death only 12 hours ago. James also noticed that his friend's eyes had been drooping for the past little while.

"Did you get _any_ sleep last night?" he asked concernedly.

"I got an hour while they were deciding on my punishment," Sirius said, then yawned widely.

Everyone shook their heads in dismay, then insisted that Sirius lay down and take a nap. Obviously too tired to argue, he did as he was told, not even objecting when Remus covered him with one of his spare robes. After a moment they realized it was because he was already fast asleep.

James, Remus, and Peter spent the rest of the morning talking quietly among themselves on the seat opposite Sirius, every once in a while throwing him a worried glance when one of them got too loud. They needn't have concerned themselves, though, their friend was sleeping like a log.

An hour or two after lunch, the dark-haired girl that James had assumed was Sirius's Ravenclaw cousin Andromeda poked her head into their compartment. After looking around for a moment, she quickly withdrew back into the corridor, and they could hear her whispering to someone outside. "Shh! I found him! Quick, in here, Ted."

A sixth year Ravenclaw boy with straw-colored hair and a friendly face ducked quickly into their compartment, Andromeda right on his heels. "Stand guard," she whispered to the boy, Ted, and left him to stand in the doorway while she went over to Sirius. Kneeling down on the floor by her cousin, she turned to address the other three occupants of the compartment. "Did he tell you what happened last night?" she asked, more than a trace of indignation in her voice.

They nodded. "You're Andromeda, right?" James asked in return. The girl smiled ruefully.

"That's me, the other proud disgrace to the Black family name." She turned her attention back to her cousin, and they could see her gently running her fingers along his neck. "Ouch," she whispered softly to herself, "that looks worse than it did last night." Shaking her head, she continued her inspection, and after a moment she noticed Sirius's hand wrapped in the blood soaked pajama sleeve. "What happened to his hand?" she asked sharply.

As James explained about the punishment Sirius's uncle had dealt him last night, Andromeda slowly and carefully unwrapped his hand. When she had finished, they could all see that the back of it was covered in awful deep scratches, parts of which were still bleeding. Andromeda swore softly. "Those arrogant, stupid _gits_!" she said when she had calmed down a little, turning back to the boys. "Anyone got a bandage, or a handkerchief, or something?"

"I've got some bandages," Remus piped up, smiling with what looked to James like grim satisfaction. "I've also got some salve, I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier!"

After a few minutes of rummaging through his truck, Remus proffered the items to Andromeda, who accepted gratefully. Unscrewing the bottle of salve, she started to squeeze some onto her hand. "You just need a little, that stuff stings pretty bad," Remus said wisely. Nodding, Andromeda started to rub the stuff onto Sirius's hand as gently as she could manage.

It only took a second for Sirius to start stirring in discomfort. He groaned and tried to jerk his hand away. "Shh, it's okay, Sirius, it's me, Andromeda," his cousin started whispering reassuringly. She used her free hand to reach up and brush Sirius's hair out of his eyes. After a moment his eyes opened and he looked around blearily. "Oh, Sirius, I'm sorry, go back to sleep," Andromeda said softly. "I just needed to take care of your hand so it'll stop bleeding, you're okay, close your eyes." Sirius obeyed, and he was fast asleep again less than a minute after waking up.

Andromeda finished rubbing in the salve, then she carefully placed the bandage over her cousin's hand. After looking over Sirius one last time, she stood up and handed Remus his bottle of salve back. "Thanks, you three," she said with a pretty smile, "I'm glad he's got some friends who care about him."

They smiled back. "And we're glad he still has family who care about him, too," James said.

Andromeda's smile turned sad. "There aren't many of us. We outcasts have to stick together. You three just make sure Sirius goes to see Madam Pomfrey when we get back to Hogwarts, okay? She needs to take a look at his neck and hand especially." When the three of them agreed that they would, Andromeda turned toward the door. "Ted?" she asked simply.

The boy, who had been alternately watching the corridor and what was going on in the compartment, now turned his full attention outside. "Hold on," he said after a second, "there are two Slytherins heading this way."

The three boys watched in surprise as the sixth years took up positions on either side of the door, so as to be out of sight of anyone glancing inside. After a few moments, Ted poked his head around to have another look. "All clear, let's hurry," he said. "You first."

Andromeda ducked hurriedly out into the corridor after one last smile at the three friends and another sympathetic look at Sirius. Ted stared at his watch for a couple of minutes, then looked up. "Well," he began, "it was nice meeting you all. Uh, by the way, you didn't see us together, okay? I don't want to be a target." Then he ran out into the corridor after Andromeda.

The three friends exchanged bewildered looks. "That was interesting," James said simply. The others nodded.

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. They told each other what they did on their vacation, and James couldn't help but feel that he had had the most interesting time, save for Sirius, of course. Peter was halfway through an account of everything he had eaten for Christmas dinner when the train finally started to slow down. James jumped up to look out the window. "Yes, we're here at last, mates!" he said excitedly. As Remus and Peter started assembling all their luggage, James went over to Sirius, who was still sound asleep. The fact that his friend had slept almost all day was worrisome to James, but he kept reminding himself that he had stayed up almost all night, after all. He pulled Remus's spare robe off and handed it to him, then shook Sirius's shoulder. "Hey wake up, mate," he said with a bit of hesitation. Having never had to do it before, he had no idea how his best friend would react to being woken up. His own father could be a real bear about it sometimes.

After a few seconds, Sirius started to stir. "Wha-" he mumbled groggily.

"Hurry and get dressed, we're here!" James said urgently as the train came to a halt. He went over and got a Hogwart's robe out of Sirius's trunk while his friend slowly sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. "Here, catch!" he said as he tossed the robe over. Sirius didn't even try to react. The robe landed in his lap, and after a moment he looked down at it as if he was trying to figure out what it was.

Frowning, James walked back over to his friend. He had never had this kind of trouble waking up before. He saw that Sirius's eyes looked slightly bloodshot and unfocused, which caused James to get even more worried. He snapped his fingers in the other boy's face. "Sirius, you with us?"

Sirius looked up and seemed to see his friend for the first time. "James," he said in a somewhat raspy sounding voice, "what's going on?"

"Hogwarts!" James replied, relieved that Sirius was finally being responsive. "Come on, get dressed, people are already getting off the train."

Leaving Sirius to fumble with his robes, the other three boys started hauling all of the trunks and various animals outside. After a few minutes the four of them were finally heading back to the castle, having been lucky enough to get a carriage to themselves. All through the trip James kept shooting Sirius furtive glances of concern. His friend was being too quiet, and he still looked really groggy. "You okay?" he asked after a while. Sirius just nodded. James wasn't convinced, but he decided not to press the matter. Yet.

Soon they arrived at Hogwarts, but instead of following the other students into dinner, James pulled Sirius aside. "You should go see Madam Pomfrey," he said, not needing Andromeda's admonition to tell him his friend needed a trip to the hospital wing.

But then Sirius started to struggle, the first real life he had shown all night. He pulled his arm out of his friend's grip. "Come on, James, I'm starving," he implored, his hand going to his stomach. "I'll see her later, okay?" He started to head back to the Great Hall, leaving James to follow after him.

Sirius slowly started to get back to being himself more and more as the meal went on, which allayed some of James's worries. At least until dessert, when Sirius reached up to rub his forehead with a wince. "What's wrong?" James asked immediately.

"Just a headache," Sirius responded, giving James a look that made him feel like a mother hen.

He grinned. "All right, I'll stop bothering you. But you really should-"

"Go see Madam Pomfrey, I know," Sirius said with a shake of his head. "I'll be okay." After a few minutes, Sirius looked around to make sure everyone else was occupied, then he leaned in close to James and started whispering. "Look, James, I don't want any trouble. I'll be fine. But if I go to the hospital wing-" He broke off with a sigh.

"What?" James prompted.

"Madam Pomfrey will wonder how I got hurt like this on vacation. What if she writes my parents to ask them what happened? Then I'll get in trouble for getting _them_ in trouble."

"But don't you want them to get in trouble? They deserve it!"

Sirius shook his head. "I just want them to forget about me. The rest of the school year will go just fine if we pretend each other doesn't exist. That's the way I want it to be."

It was James's turn to sigh. Having come from a loving and supportive home, he couldn't imagine what it must be like to have such a family relationship. He decided not to press the matter. He had only been to the hospital wing once, so he really couldn't say what Madam Pomfrey would do. And he certainly didn't want Sirius to get in trouble. So he nodded in agreement, hoping they could just put this whole affair behind them. "All right, Sirius. But if you start to feel any worse, you will go get yourself looked at, won't you?"

"Sure thing," Sirius agreed, but James wasn't sure he sounded entirely convincing. He didn't have a chance to say anything, though, because dinner had ended by then and everyone was getting up to go back to their Houses. The four first year Gryffindors followed suit, and soon they were back in the familiar surroundings of their dormitory. Instead of taking time to settle back in like the others, Sirius just changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed, still rubbing his forehead from time to time.

"Night," he said to no one in particular, then fell fast asleep. The others exchanged brief looks of concern, but shrugged them off as they set about unpacking their trucks and getting ready for bed themselves.

James sighed as he climbed into bed a short while later. It was good to be back at Hogwarts. As great as it had been to see his parents, he was glad to be back among boys his own age again. Being an only child could get lonely sometimes. And nothing really exciting ever happened at home. Here at Hogwarts he had both- company, and endless opportunities to make all kinds of interesting things happen. Smiling to himself, James rolled over and fell asleep.

The next morning, he woke up from a restful sleep still in a happy mood. Peter and Remus were already up and moving about, Peter searching under his bed for shoes he had already somehow managed to misplace, and Remus packing his school bag. Sirius, however, was still asleep. James checked his watch as he put it on, and saw they still had twenty minutes before breakfast. He made as much noise as possible getting ready, but ten minutes later Sirius was still asleep.

"Wow, he must be _really_ tired," Peter said quietly, "like he hasn't slept in weeks instead of just one night."

"Maybe we should just let him sleep, he could be sick," Remus suggested.

"That's what I'm worried about," James admitted, frowning. "I'm gonna make sure he's okay." He started shaking Sirius's shoulder to wake him up. And he kept shaking. "Hey, Sirius, wake up!" James said loudly. Still no response. He looked up at Remus, who had moved to stand by the bed, and saw that his eyes were widening in alarm.

"Pull the covers off, that always gets me," Remus said as he seized the blankets on Sirius's bed. After pulling them all off, they looked hopefully down at their friend, but it hadn't helped.

"I'll get some water!" Peter practically squeaked. He retrieved the cup of water he kept on his bedside table for nighttime thirstiness, then handed it to James, who promptly poured the whole thing into Sirius's face. Nothing.

"Come on, Sirius, this isn't funny!" he practically yelled, shaking the boy harder than ever. They could all see that he was breathing and everything, so what was wrong with him! "Wake up!"

"What should we do!" Peter squeaked again, wringing his hands in agitation.

"Go get help, Peter!" James ordered him, having come to the conclusion, rather rapidly, that they had a major problem here. "Madam Pomfrey'll know what to do."

As Peter bolted from the room, James and Remus shared another very worried look.

"I hope so," Remus said quietly. James said nothing. He didn't want to think about it.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"And so I turned to Ashlynn, and she said, 'Well, I guess it wasn't a wig, after all!'"

The knot of seventh years sitting around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room burst into uproarious laughter as Henry Taylor finished regaling them with the tale of one of his exploits from the Christmas break.

Dan Spence, Head Boy, laughed with the rest, though he had a better story. And there would be just enough time to tell it before they had to head for breakfast. But just as he opened his mouth to begin, one of the little first year boys practically flew into their midst from the direction of the dormitories.

"Help!" the chubby boy squeaked breathlessly, zeroing in on Dan and his gleaming Head Boy badge. "My friend won't wake up!"

"Now hold on just a minute, there," Dan said, trying to sound reassuring despite the smile he was attempting to hide as a few people in the group chuckled. These first years were so funny. "Don't start panicking yet. How hard have you tried to wake him?"

Chubby, who was still trying to get his breath back, began waving his arms about as he exclaimed, "We've tried everything! We've yelled at him, and shook him, and ripped his covers off, and threw water on him, and-"

"Alright, alright," Dan held up his hand to stop the boy. Standing up, he continued, "I'll take a look. Lead on." He turned to share an amused glance with his friends before he followed Chubby up the stairs to the first year's dormitory. It was hard to imagine that he and his friends had ever been that young and ignorant, and so _small_.

Following Chubby into the room, he was met by a kid with black hair and glasses. Another boy, who looked a bit sickly to Dan, was standing by a bed on which a third boy was lying, also with black hair. Dan immediately recognized the unconscious boy as the Black kid.

Anyone familiar enough with the ways of the wizarding world knew about the Black family, how they were one of the oldest pure blood families, almost all Slytherins, and all steeped in the dark arts. Dan had been as shocked as the rest of the Gryffindors when a Black had been sorted into their house, and they had been watching the kid warily ever since. Luckily, though, he didn't start displaying dark tendencies, though he did seem to have a love of mischief making. But also from what Dan had observed, the kid with the glasses was even worse.

Glasses spoke now, walking back over to the bed and pointing at his friend. "We tried everything!" he exclaimed, clearly agitated. "He slept all day yesterday, and he said last night that he had a headache, and he went up here and fell asleep right after dinner. He must be sick! We need Madam Pomfrey!"

Dan looked over at Black again, lying on a bed with no covers, his face and hair wet. He shook his head. "He's probably playing a joke on you," he said, recalling the boys' love of mishief.

"He is not!" Glasses exclaimed indignantly.

"He would never do something like this!" Sickly spoke up, looking rather perturbed as well. "James is right, we need Madam Pomfrey!"

Dan was starting to grow impatient. He wanted to tell the boys to go and get Madam Pomfrey then, but he didn't think she could come up to the boys' dormitories. Which meant he would have to help them get him to the common room, at the very least, and he felt that he had wasted enough time on this already. Allison Hayworth had been in the group downstairs, and Dan had wanted to impress her with the story he had been about to tell about his visit to that dragon sanctuary in Romania over the break.

Dan stepped closer to the bed and watched the boy for a few seconds, but it did certainly appear that he was really unconscious. _Unless he's a really good actor._ He turned to the three boys. "Look," he said, trying not to sound _too_ condescending, "you guys only tried non-magical ways of waking a person up. When you get older, like me, you'll know the proper way to do these things. Observe."

Dan turned back to the Black kid and drew his wand. "_Ennervate_" he said, his wand aimed at the boy's chest. Dan and the others watched, expecting Black to wake up, but it didn't happen. Instead something entirely unexpected happened. Black stopped moving altogether.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!" Glasses started hollering. "HE STOPPED BREATHING!"

"I CAN SEE THAT!" Dan yelled back. Knocking Glasses and Chubby out of the way, he rushed up to the bed. He grabbed Black by the shoulders and shook him, but to no avail. After a moment he recovered just enough of his wits to check for a pulse, which he found to his immense relief. It meant, at least, that he hadn't killed him. But _what_ could have gone wrong! It was only a simple waking spell!

"WAKE UP, KID!" Dan yelled again, shaking Black harder than ever. "BREATHE!" He slapped him across the face then, but still there was no response.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Glasses screamed, jumping up and down in agitation. "GET HIM TO THE HOSPITAL WING, YOU IDIOT!"

Dan was too distressed to be annoyed at having a first year give him orders, or even at being called an idiot. Instead he simply obeyed. He lifted Black up into his arms, and it was alarming to feel how still the boy was. The other three boys had enough sense to get out of his way as he charged out of the dormitory, but he could hear them hot on his heels as he went bounding down the steps three at a time. It was a very good thing the Black kid was small for his age.

As Dan came charging into the common room carrying one first year with three others running after him, everyone naturally turned to stare. "Dan, what-" began one of his friends, but Dan had no time now for explanations.

"Out of the way!" he yelled at a group of third year girls who were climbing out of the portrait hole. They scattered with startled squeals as Dan came charging into their midst. He didn't waste any time apologizing when he knocked a few over.

Once Dan climbed through the portrait hole he adjusted his grip on Black, who was still deathly still. More frightened now than he had ever been in his life, Dan took off down the corridor at a dead run. The other boys remained close on his heels as he ran through the castle, feeling that the hospital wing could not be further away. Luckily the corridors and staircases were pretty deserted as they ran through them, as most everyone was at breakfast already. The few people they met had the good sense to get out of the way, especially after Dan yelled at them. Bounding down yet another staircase, Dan was relieved to see that he only had a corridor, one more staircase, and one more corridor to go before he made it to the hospital wing.

Most unfortunately, Mrs. Norris had picked this corridor to spy on this morning, and Dan did not see her until it was too late. He had almost reached the top of the staircase when the cat came slinking out of the shadows to stare disapprovingly at the students running in the castle. Dan ran full on into her, and before he knew what was happening he was pitching forward, and a second later a heavy weight slammed into him from behind. They all went crashing to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs, accompanied by the ear splitting shrieks of one very perturbed cat. But Dan was hardly aware of any of that. He had landed right at the edge of the staircase, so that his head and shoulders were lying suspended over the top step. And he had not managed to hold onto Black as he fell. Dan watched, utterly horrorstruck, as the kid tumbled down the steps. It was like the moment was suspended in time, somehow, and Dan was frozen as the only spectator of the horrible scene.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, though in truth it couldn't have been more than five seconds, Black landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs and lay still. That sight finally spurred Dan back into action. He tried to lift himself up, but there was the weight of the first year boys on top of him, and from the sound of it, Mrs. Norris was attacking all three of them at once. "Get off, get off, GET OFF!" Dan screamed in desperation, pushing up off the floor with all his might. After a second the weight on top of him shifted enough that he was able to throw them off. Without even a backward glance to see how the boys were faring, Dan took off down the steps five at a time, his eyes still fixed on the kid lying at the bottom. _If his neck is broken_… Dan did not dwell long on that thought. He did not like to think what would happen to him if it turned out that he was responsible for killing an heir of one of the oldest, most powerful, and darkest wizarding families of Great Britain. They would probably send him to Azkaban! Or kidnap him and torture and kill him, and no one would ever be able to find out what really happened to him.

With these thoughts swirling unpleasantly through his head, Dan arrived at the bottom of the stairs. He was almost afraid to look closely at the kid, but he did it anyway. Dan cringed. One of Black's legs was lying at a most uncomfortable angle, and his right arm looked twisted. But more alarming still was the fact that Black's face and lips now had a definite bluish tinge to them. Dan decided then that any broken bones the kid had now didn't matter compared to the fact that he wasn't breathing.

Without another moment's hesitation, Dan carefully lifted the kid back up into his arms, but he cringed again when he realized he could feel that one of his legs was definitely broken. _I am SO dead_, he thought, even more terrified that ever, as he set off at a run down the corridor once more. He could still hear the shrieks of Mrs. Norris and the yells of the three first years as they attempted to fend off the angry cat.

Soon the doors to the hospital wing came into view, and they were the most welcome sight Dan had ever seen. "MADAM POMFREY! MADAM POMFREY!" he started yelling as loud as he could, while still halfway down the corridor. Several students down at the other end turned to see what all the ruckus was about as Dan charged into the hospital wing at full speed. He nearly ran into Madam Pomfrey as he entered, and had to swerve aside to avoid yet another unpleasant collision.

"What's going on? What happened?" Pomfrey asked in alarm as she took in the sight of Black in Dan's arms.

Breathing heavily, Dan started trying to explain what had happened, though it ended up sounding rather incoherent. "Black wouldn't wake…tried _ennervate_….stopped breathing…fell down stairs…his leg's broken…"

Luckily Pomfrey had been around children long enough that she was able to grasp the gist of what the Head Boy was telling her even before he finished with his winded explanation. "Lay him down there," she commanded, pointing to the bed nearest to them. "Carefully!" she admonished as Dan rushed over. Together they laid the boy down gently on the bed, Pomfrey helping to support his head and injured leg.

Dan backed up, watching anxiously as Pomfrey started examining her newest patient. He could tell that she was as alarmed as he was to see how blue the boy's face was. After a moment she drew back, then she lifted her wand and started firing spells in rapid succession at Black's chest.

Just then the three other first years came rushing into the hospital wing, having finally managed to extricate themselves from Mrs. Norris. Dan turned around and spread his arms to block them from running to their friend.

"Out of the way!" Glasses exclaimed as he struggled to get around the seventh year, who Dan noticed had several scratches on his arms and face, and his robe was torn. The other boys had fared no better.

"Stay back!" Dan said to them, glaring down at Glasses, who glared back. "You'll only make matters worse if you get in the way!"

"_You're_ the one who made matters worse!" Glasses responded heatedly. "If you hadn't-"

Glasses's accusations were interrupted by the sudden sound of gasping from behind Dan, who turned around to see that Madam Pomfrey had at last succeeded in getting Black to breathe. The boy was now fighting desperately for air. Both Glasses and Sickly started forward, but Dan grabbed them each by the shoulder to stop them. He could tell by the look on Pomfrey's face that the kid wasn't out of the woods yet. Sickly stopped struggling, shoulders slumped in defeat, but Glasses was having nothing to do with it.

"LET GO!" he yelled, trying to throw Dan's hand off of him.

"Stay here, would you, and shut up!" Dan said quietly, knowing that Pomfrey was likely to throw them out any second now if this commotion continued, and definitely if Glasses were to go running up to his friend and get in her way. He looked up to see that Black had stopped gasping and was now coughing his lungs out from the sound of it. Pomfrey had turned him onto his side and was quietly uttering more spells, her wand tip glowing bright blue. Her other hand was stroking Black's hair in an effort to comfort the kid as he continued to fight for breath.

After a moment, Black started moaning piteously in between coughs, which were racking his entire body. It was too much for Glasses, and with a mighty wrench he broke free of Dan's grip, momentarily catching the Head Boy off guard. He ran up to the bed, exclaiming worriedly, "Sirius! Madam Pomfrey, is he going to be alright?"

Pomfrey looked up, clearly annoyed at the interruption. "Potter," she said sharply, "get back! Spence, get these boys out of here! Now!"

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey," Dan said resignedly, knowing the order had to come sooner or later. He glared at Sickly and Chubby to make sure they stayed put before going to fetch Glasses, who was still harassing the nurse with concerned questions about his friend. "Now you've done it," he said quietly to the first year as he grabbed him from behind. Glasses started struggling against him again, and Dan was really starting to get annoyed. He jerked the kid's arm up behind him and started pulling him backwards by it, so he couldn't struggle without hurting himself.

This only served to enrage Glasses even further. "LET GO OF ME!" he screamed, trying to kick back with his legs to get Dan in the shins.

At all the commotion, Pomfrey looked up again, her face turning red. "I SAID GET OUT!" she yelled. "I CAN'T CONCENTRATE WITH ALL THIS NOISE! OUT! I DON'T WANT-" She was interrupted in her indignation by the sight of the glow at her want tip turning from blue to red. She paled visibly. "Dan," Pomfrey said, alarmed, "get Dumbledore immediately! Hurry!"

There was such urgency in her voice that Glasses stopped struggling. Dan could see that Black had stopped coughing, and was now barely moving again, except that he was shaking slightly.

"NOW!" Pomfrey practically screamed when she saw that Dan had hesitated for a second.

Needing no further encouragement, Dan let Glasses go, turned about, and ran out of the hospital wing as fast as he could towards the Great Hall. He ran with as much desperation as he had before, since Pomfrey was clearly still very worried about her patient. He made it the Great Hall in record time, which wasn't very far anyway, luckily. Barreling through a crowd of students heading to their table, Dan ran through the Hall, knocking anyone aside who wasn't quick enough to get out of his way. Professor Dumbledore was already on his feet by the time Dan ran up to the head table, as was Professor McGonagall next to him.

"Madam Pomfrey needs you in the hospital wing right away!" Dan said hurriedly, hoping that the Headmaster wouldn't require further explanation before he got going. He didn't. He was already heading around the table before Dan had finished speaking, with Professor McGonagall following close behind. As they headed out of the Hall, Dumbledore motioned for Dan to join them. He told them the whole story as they walked very quickly back to the hospital wing. By the time they arrived, Dumbledore had his wand out, ready to assist in whatever Pomfrey needed.

Dan saw as they entered that the three boys were now huddled to the side, as close to Black's bed as they dared to come without enraging Pomfrey further, and looking very worried.

"Albus!" Pomfrey exclaimed, clearly relieved, as Dumbledore walked over to the bed. Dan saw that Black had gone still again, and was now starting to look rather pale. He was still breathing, but it was shallow and irregular.

"Minerva," Pomfrey addressed Professor McGonagall, "can you get these boys out of here, please?" Then she turned her full attention back to her patient as she started to talk to Dumbledore in hurried and quiet tones, so that no one else could hear what they were saying.

"Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew, out!" Professor McGonagall said to the first years as she started shooing them out of the hospital wing.

"But, Professor," Glasses began to protest, but McGonagall cut him off.

"That's enough, Potter. You boys need to hurry if you want any breakfast before class. Now get going! You too, Spence," McGonagall added, looking severely at the four boys as she herded them the rest of the way out of the hospital wing.

"But, Professor," Glasses began again, more angry this time, "I want to stay and see if Sirius is going to be alright, you can't just-"

"Potter, I said that's enough," McGonagall interrupted him. "I assure you that you three will be the first to be informed about Black's condition once it is determined. Which means," she added with a very pointed look down at the rebellious-looking black haired boy, "you need to stay where you're supposed to be so we can find you, understand?" When the three boys didn't reply, but continued to look mutinous, she repeated herself more loudly, "Is that understood?"

After a moment, the three boys nodded reluctantly and grumbled an agreement that didn't sound very convincing to anyone. Professor McGonagall turned to Dan, and said loud enough for the first years to hear, "Make sure that they find their way down to breakfast, would you, Spence?"

Dan nodded and said pointedly, facing the boys, "Yes, Professor. I'll make sure of it." The boys glared at him as Professor McGonagall turned around and re-entered the hospital wing, shutting the doors behind her.

Glasses, or Potter, Dan amended, remembering what McGonagall had called the kid, crossed his arms, planted both feet firmly on the ground, and proceeded to impale the Head Boy with some sort of Glare of Death.

Sighing inwardly, Dan returned the glare. "You lot had better clear off and get to breakfast like McGonagall said, alright?" he told them as politely as he could. This Potter kid was _really_ starting to get on his nerves.

Chubby turned around and took a few hesitant steps down the corridor, while Sickly shuffled his feet uncertainly. But Potter didn't move. "This is all your fault," he accused. "And I'm not going anywhere."

_What a surprise,_ Dan thought sarcastically. His brown eyes met Potter's defiant hazel ones, but then Dan became aware that there was a lot more than just rebelliousness and anger in the kid's face. There was a great deal of worry there too, worry for his friend, and Dan felt a stirring of guilt when he remembered that he had indeed played a part in causing that worry. He let out his breath slowly in an effort to gather his thoughts before he spoke again. "Look," he began, "I'm sorry this happened, I really am. I had no idea he would react to a simple waking spell like that, or I wouldn't have used it. But you're not doing your friend any good out here in the corridor. Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey are looking after him, and they're the best there is. Now let's all do what Professor McGonagall wanted and go to breakfast, then on to class. That way she'll be able to find you when she has news, alright?"

Potter still looked far from convinced, but some of his anger had faded. His hands dropped to his side and he bowed his head. "I want to stay here," he said quietly, and this time it sounded more like a plea than a demand.

"And do what, sit in the corridor?" Dan retorted, hoping he didn't sound _too_ unkind. "Come on, let's get down there before breakfast is over." He gestured to them as he started walking down the hallway. Sickly and Chubby moved to follow him, though reluctantly, as they kept glancing back at Potter, who was obviously their ring-leader, and who had yet to move. "Well, Potter, are you coming?" Dan asked after a minute. Potter glanced at the closed hospital wing doors, then back at his friends, and Dan saw him exchange a look with Sickly. After a moment the two boys nodded to each other, and Dan wondered just what it was the two of them were up to now. He wasn't given a chance to find out, though, as Potter finally started moving.

"Fine, I'm coming," the messy-haired boy said, stalking ahead of them down the corridor.

All through breakfast Dan tried to keep an eye on the three boys. He wished he could hear what they were saying, but they had deliberately sat as far away from him as possible. And his friends were begging him to tell them what all the commotion had been about. Every time he looked their way, the first years had their heads down in urgent talk, Potter looking grimly determined, Sickly looking vaguely unsure, and Chubby looking downright scared.

As everyone headed to class, Dan started to follow the boys, but they proved too fast for him. They ducked into a group of fourth year girls in the entrance hall, and by the time Dan had moved through the crowd himself, they were nowhere in sight. He rolled his eyes in exasperation, deciding that he had come to the end of his rope. _Fine_, he thought, _let them get into trouble. I've had enough_. Finding Allison in the crowd, he offered to carry her books to their first class. "So let me tell you about my trip to Romania over the Holiday…"

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

There had been very few times in Poppy Pomfrey's life where she had felt truly worried about the life of one of her patients. Unfortunately, this was one of them. As soon as her wand tip had started glowing red, she knew Black was in trouble- it meant his body had begun to shut down. She had hoped that Albus would be able to help her, that way he could work on discovering what was wrong with the boy, while she worked to keep him alive. But now, half and hour later, the Headmaster had not come any closer to determining the cause of Black's malady, and her own efforts were starting to flag as the boy's condition grew steadily worse. Her wand tip was still glowing red. She looked up to where Albus was muttering spells rapidly under his breath while his own wand glowed a deep purple color. The expression on his face was not encouraging.

After a few more heartbeats, the glow faded and he slowly lowered his wand with a weary sigh. "I'm sorry, Poppy," he said with a shake of his head, "it's clear that Sirius has been poisoned, but I'm afraid every spell I know for discovering poisons has proven useless. This must be something new."

"Then you have no idea where to start in finding an antidote?" Poppy asked, trying hard to keep her voice even.

"I do, actually, Poppy," Albus said quietly. But instead of elaborating further, he walked pass Minerva, who had been standing anxiously but quietly by this whole time, and over to a goblet lying on a nearby table. Pointing his wand at it as he picked it up, he muttered, "_Portus_."

Poppy understood what the Headmaster intended at once, and she felt her heart sink into the floor. If he really felt sending the boy to St. Mungo's was his only chance… She looked into Albus's face as he headed back towards her, and she understood that he did. Nodding in defeat, she silently lifted the too-still first year into her arms, being careful not to jostle his broken bones that she had not yet had time to mend. She placed the hand of his good arm in hers, though a bit gingerly since she didn't know why it was bandaged. Then Albus placed the goblet in their hands and counted, "One, two, three…" Poppy's last sight before the portkey whisked them away was the sight of Minerva looking every bit as worried as she felt.

A second later the peace of Hogwart's hospital wing was replaced by the chaos that was St. Mungo's emergency ward for poison victims as Poppy and her charge landed gently on the floor. "New entry over here!" someone shouted from behind her, and soon she was surrounded by a small crowd of Healers.

Not wasting any time, the Healer-in-charge bent down and very gently lifted Black out of her arms, then someone helped her to her feet. Everyone followed the head Healer over to the nearest empty bed while Poppy hurriedly told them all she knew about the boy's condition. The head Healer began shouting orders as soon as he had laid down his newest patient, while Poppy backed up to give them room to work. The frantic activity that commenced as everyone rushed to carry out their orders made the child at the center of it all that much more conspicuous by his immobility. Poppy was startled to see how very still and pale he had become in just the last few minutes. To her, he looked dead.

And the only thing she could do now was hope with all her might that she was mistaken.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Well, not only did it take me almost two years to update, I ended in a cliffie! I'm sooooo evil, aren't I? Well, seeing as how I hadn't updated in a really really long time, I was just going to let this story stay dead, since I'm sure I've lost all the people who were reading it long long ago anyway, but then I was going through my documents and realized to my surprise that I already had a great deal of chapter 3 written already. So I decided to go ahead and update and see what happens.

And now I must personally apologize to all the people that reviewed from two years ago for taking so long to update this, though I daresay that none of them will likely be looking at this anyway. I'm sorry nicole, Cloud Lupine, Snuffles2, Trinity Day, Senav Gold, Neo, Drachenaugen, Nora's magelet (didn't you used to be Padfoot-dreamer, or something like that?), yeen, Goldenlioness4, Sally Lupin-Black, Kaija, and Gohan Hugger! Thanks you guys for reading and reviewing my story two years ago! And just in case there really is anybody around to wonder, I won't take that long to update with chapter 4, which is the last chapter of my fic, since I am already well into writing it and I no longer have a life, so I can devote lots of time to this story now! Hooray!


End file.
